Special issue on information flow and WOM in social media and online communities (PDF)

Recent developments have changed forever the way that consumers interact with brands that they are interested in and has influenced the available avenues they can use to collectively express their strong feelings and to exchange information about brands. The development of complex online settings which allow individual to interact allowed them to have access to people who are not geographically close but have similar mind-sets in relation to various issues and often form online communities where they exchange feelings and ideas about their object of passion.This special issue of the Online Information Review focuses on consumer behaviour in online communities and in particular in consumer interactions within brand and consumption communities. Given the importance of the topic it is not surprising that the call for papers of this special issue attracted over 40 submissions. The ten carefully selected contributions made by 34 academics working in 10 countries and 4 continents push the boundaries in all facets of information flow and behaviour in online brand communities. The papers cover a number of interesting areas related to the interaction between the individuals and the technology during the involvement of individuals with the communities. As a result, this issue informs the landscape of recent research progress and novel applications, techniques, case studies and strategies in analysing online information posted on various social media platforms.